Florence -- The four had pondered the idea for many years, but it was not until they got together that their dreams came to fruition.

On Dec. 28, Charles "Chas" and Lindsay Blankenship, her father George Chintala and her uncle Tom Chintala opened The Hamlet Tavern in the former Alibi Lounge at 114 E. Main St. in Florence.

The idea began when Lindsay talked to Tom after he came back to Pueblo after being gone for many years. When he casually remarked they should start a business, she said she and Chas had talked about opening a bar. And what was more remarkable, Tom and George also had the same idea.

At first, she looked at several places, but they couldn't make a deal on one place. One day while driving through town, Lindsay and Chas joked that the former Alibi Lounge was for sale. At that point, they contacted the owner and began negotiating the price, which they finally cut a deal.

After purchasing the storefront, the four completely remodeled the building, starting with the floor and working their way through the building.

"(We've been working) on this since May," Chas said.

Lindsay said they had to cut out half of the floor almost the length of the building then replace half of the floor joists on one side.

"That was the biggest part of it," she said.

But they always had an idea what way to pursue.

"Between the four of us, we kind of had an idea what we wanted," Chas said.

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"At first, we were going to keep the existing bathrooms."

But they found that was not an option, so they completely refinished them and painted the walls of the tavern gray with red to accent it and a black ceiling. Their décor includes two pictures on the back bar.

"(Lindsay and I) found those pictures four or five years ago," Chas said.

But opening a bar was like a dream, she agreed.

"We thought it would be so fun to open a bar," Lindsay added. "But we never thought we would actually do it."

In the future, the four would like to finish the kitchen to offer food, as well.

"We want to do bar food and keep it simple -- sandwiches, hamburgers (and) some deep fried appetizers, (but) we're going to do fresh and creative (menu). We're going to try to be different than anyone else in town."

The Hamlet Tavern is open from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. seven days a week. The telephone number is 784-1333.

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